Early part of the Eagle Creek trail. Beautiful, even on a grey, rainy day.
Last Saturday I went for a run with Jessica of Portland Trail Runners on the Eagle Creek trail in the Gorge. This is one of my favorite trails to run. If you live around here and you have never hiked or run up Eagle Creek, you are really missing out. The plan was to run to Tunnel Falls and back; a 12 mile round trip. Recent reports said there were a few blowdowns, small slides, and patches of snow to contend with, but overall the trail was pretty passable. We were going to find out!
Starting out it was pretty cold, but the warm up was quick once we started moving. It seemed to rain the entire time, but most of the trail is sheltered by trees, so for the most part the rain wasn’t bad. Other than stopping continuously to take pictures the 3 miles to High Bridge were pretty uneventful. Right after that we hit some ice and a pretty slick spot on the trail. We had to be pretty careful to avoid slipping and falling, but there was a good path cut through the stable part of the snow from those that went before us. There was also a blowdown right around here that we had to crawl under. Other obstacles included a few small landslides that were also pretty easy to cross, especially since paths had already been cut through.
Tunnel Falls and the tunnel
Eventually we made it to Tunnel Falls. I’ve actually been here twice before, but for some reason have no memory of hiking through it the first time. I don’t understand why, because it is pretty incredible. The waterfall is pretty big to begin with, and there is a tunnel through the rock behind it.
Tunnel Falls was our turnaround, and we headed back. As we got to the falls, my right knee was starting to hurt a bit, and it got progressively worse as I got towards the end. This seems slightly ironic. My left leg was injured a bit after the Hagg Lake 25k, and I wasn’t completely sure it was ready for this run. It turned out to be fine, and my right knee hurt instead. Maybe I was compensating and didn’t realize it? Whatever the case, as I write this now my right knee still hurts pretty bad. Today is my second rest day, and I’m likely to take at least three more and hope that is enough. My fitness seems to be coming along fairly well otherwise, so hopefully this won’t end up being another weeks-long unplanned interruption!
